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The Year in Review: The 5 Worst Shows of 2013

Considering the number of high profile dramas that launched this year and the many returning shows that took audience by storm last year that there would be very few shows that people should outright loathe…and yet, there are plenty. Here are the five worst series of the year and some reasons why.

5. True Blood – Lets face it, True Blood has been in freefall for years, it’s ever expanding character base, its increasingly out there story ideas and its not so thinly veiled political satire has been ruining the show for years, ever since the shows season 2 finale. However this year took the biscuit. Not only did they turn Bill (Stephen Moyer) into an all powerful super prick but for the first time in series history the shows lead Sookie (Anna Paquin) felt like a character in a different show. The writers have lost their compass and have no clue of how to find it again. Considering that the show is ending next year with its much anticipated final season, one can only hope that someone might be able to reign in a once proud and powerful show.

4. Beauty and the Beast -There are many series out there that do not need to be remade, shows like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos (although Bad is being adapted in Mexico), but one show that could use a revamp is the classic 80s series Beauty and the Beast. The original starred Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton as Vincent and Catherine, the titular duo and was a fun bit of 80s cheese. The revamped version, set in modern day New York City stars Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk and Jay Ryan. While Perlman’s Vincent hid in an underground community of other creatures, Ryan’s interpretation of Vincent is an army experiment gone awry, a soldier on the run who collides with Kreuk’s Chandler and together they solve crimes. However this year, the show entered its 2nd season and without the procedural element the show has lost its focus and the show has become a series of repetitive declarations of love and other shmaltzy gimmicks designed to make female viewers flock to the show like flies to shit.

3. House of Lies – This American comedy series is probably the most self absorbed and idiotic series to air this year. Having finished airing its 2nd season, House of Lies has taught a lot of people how not to be terrible people, by showing characters so horrible and repellant that watching them do anything is akin to ripping your own skin off. It’s just painful. Starring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell, House of Lies follows the people running a firm, what the firm does? Well I don’t think the shows creators can even tell you that. Badly written with no clear idea of where its heading, this comedy sucks all the fun out of laughing because when you do you are laughing at how horrible these people are. That would be fine if the shows lead didn’t have a child. The show shoehorns in this child to give him a redeeming feature but by doing so have invited the idea that this is a family show when it’s just plain wrong.

2. Bates Motel – This prequel series takes extra special care to look after the legacy of Psycho. I’d appreciate that if I didn’t think Psycho was a overhyped piece of dated rubbish. That being said I was willing to see where Bates Motel was headed after all it’s showrunner is Carlton Cuse, one of the co-writers of Lost. What I came to watch was a pointlessly bleak, overly plotty story of people corrupting each other. Starring Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga as Norman and Norma Bates, the series doesn’t have a destination as much as it sets out to cause as much destruction as possible without reason. The show opens with a grisly murder only for another one to happen moments later, effectively removing the stakes from this gothic series. There are no consequences when you don’t care and thats what Bates Motel made me do, stop caring.

1. Betrayal – Here it is, the worst show of the year. It isn’t the fact that the series is based around one woman’s desire to have an affair. It isn’t the terrible acting by the two leads Hannah Ware and Stuart Townsend or the pointless mystery plot that the shows writers cobbled together to keep some kind of mute tension in the air. It’s the fact that when I started watching I could see every little twist, every line of dialogue, every character trait and how it was envisioned to work in the shows favour. The problem was there was no story because it had already been laid out in the shows opening 40 minute episode. I mean sure the insensitive plot makes no sense on a marketing basis (probably why the show tanked as badly as it did) but a good show made well is a good show and Betrayal ladies and gentlemen is a bad show, a really bad show, one worth buying on DVD only to burn it outside with the rest of your rubbish.

My Profile

I am a freelance film reviewer currently ghost writing for Cinema Paradiso, a UK rental company. I graduated from the University of Hull with a BA in History and Film Studies where I spent most of my time reviewing and watching films.
I currently work as a bartender/waiter as well while I build up my workload. I enjoy writing, reading and discussing movies. I am obsessed with the movies of Sam Mendes, Noah Baumbach, the Coen Brothers, the Wachowski brothers and Richard Linklater